Author: Barbara Czarnecka

I admit, I have never read the Slow Professor book, but if the Slow Professor concept is similar to the Slow Food movement, then surely it must be good! Mindful, considered, thought-through, healthy, sustainable food is better than fast, pre-packaged, mindless, tasteless food so the same principle applied to academy must produce better long-term results too! Well-fed organisms are healthier, happier and contribute better to economy and society.

The writers of the Slow Professor are not the only advocates of more mindful and slower academia. Mats Alvesson, in several of his books, argues how the current emptiness in higher education (specifically, in the wider social sciences, and in management/business/marketing in specific) leads to the overproduction of meaningless research, neglect of teaching and lack of time for truly student-centered approach. The culture of speed (because things done fast must be good, right?) rapid decision making, countless ‘projects’ and initiatives that achieve nothing more than a waste of money and time permeates some higher education institutions.

I am ready for a slow(er) pace and less-is-more appraoch to academic work.

(by Mats Alvesson, Yiannis Gabriel, and Roland Paulsen, 2017, Oxford University Press).

I am not very good at writing book reviews, so I thought to share some quotes from this thought-provoking book. Here are some I related to and found very relevant to the current context of higher education, scholarship and research:

“The current proliferation of academic publishing in social science, far from enhancing human knowledge, is creating a vacuum of meaning” (p. 12) “[…] the age of mass research and mass publication has led to a perverse relationship between authors wanting to write and publish, and a shortage of readers” (p. 110)

“There are many different ways of being a scholar. […] Being a scholar as an identity and a mode of working means reading and thinking more than managing data. It means arguing and engaging with the ideas of other scholars in written texts but also in conferences, seminars, and informal discussions. It means intervening in public debates, […]. It means being a committed teacher, concerned about the education of future generations of citizens and also future scholars”. (p. 88)

And finally:

“Being a scholar also means making a contribution to the different scientific communities and institutions as a socially involved citizen. Research is part of what it means to be a scholar, but the latter cannot be reduced to doing research, let alone having journal hits” (p. 88)

How to influence people to make better decisions?

Have you ever wondered why people around you still make choices that do not seem the best for them? Despite being surrounded by numerous advertisements, billboards, smart phone apps or newspaper articles about how important it is to lose weight or why smoking is not the best for one’s health, or why one should save money, it seems there are still millions of people who are still overweight or obese, keep smoking and are in debt.

In the UK, 56% of people are overweight or obese (Eurostat, 2014), household debt is very high (The Money Charity, 2018), 15% of people still  smoke (The Guardian, 2017) and over 75,000 people still drink and drive (ROSPA, 2017). Of course, the reasons behind these are numerous and complex, but one of the questions is why, despite access to information, it is so hard to change people’s behaviour?

The UK government’s initiatives to use the Behaviour Change Communication have produced positive results: fewer people smoke now than 20 years ago, fewer  people drink and drive, but some areas still need more work, and yet some other challenge appear and need to be addressed. Is communication enough to change people’s behaviour or do we need other initiatives (such as regulations) to change behaviours?

Do social marketers use the wrong type of messages (for example, anti-smoking campaigns that do not work), do governments develop schemes that do not reward people to make better choices (for example, would paying for healthcare for issues related to self-inflicted obesity make people take better care of their health – but look at America, they are one of the most overweight/obese nations in the world).

Of course, the reasons behind these are numerous and complex, but one of the questions is why, despite access to information it is so hard to change people’s behaviour; and would stricter government control of availability of some products and services help people make better choices?  ‘Information overload’ and placing responsibility for all choices on the shoulders of individuals may lead to individuals not being able (for example, due to lack of resources such as time) to access and understand the relevant information. Perhaps, the government could be more proactive in regulating the market in a way that consumers are not overburdened with the choices that they have to make, for example by not allowing some products to be offered in the market?

Sources: 

Eurostat. (2014). Overweight and obesity – BMI statistics.   Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Overweight_and_obesity_-_BMI_statistics

ROSPA. (2017). Road Safety Factsheet.   Retrieved January 15 2018, from https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/drivers/drinking-and-driving.pdf

The Guardian. (2017). Smoking rate in UK falls to second-lowest in Europe.   Retrieved January 15 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/15/smoking-rate-in-uk-falls-to-second-lowest-in-europe

The Money Charity. (2018). The Money Statistics January 2018.   Retrieved January 15 2018, from http://themoneycharity.org.uk/money-statistics/

Advertisements from Oman Air in-flight magazine (April 2015).

These two adverts are examples of how advertising reflects and is influenced by culture and religion.

In this era of information overload consumers choose to pay less and less attention to advertising, especially on TV or the Internet. This street marketing approach may be quite effective as drivers have nowhere to go.

Photo 1:  Banner at a crossing in Mexico City.

Having recently experienced a ‘brownout’ (Rigby, 2015), I was looking for some deeper meaning and sense in my job; I am lecturer, and teach marketing, marketing research, and consumer behaviour. Some call such degrees “Micky Mouse degrees”: meaningless, vocational, and academically less rigorous than the traditional academic degrees.

I have been working in academia for over six years now, and as an academic, I have seen my job change to include more meaningless administrative tasks such as copying and pasting content from one template to another, and of course these templates also change quite often (it is a job in itself to keep track of these template versions). The pressure is to make sure NSS scores are high, but we have very little time to prepare lectures and seminars that are up-to-date, interesting and relevant. Colleagues tell students how graduating with a marketing degree will help them make money and “become rich at the age of 25”. Is owning an expensive car at the age of 25 really the goal of pursuing a university degree? For some, it is, but I believe that we should aim for more than just that.

Recently, being very tired of my work, I have been asking myself if such courses have any meaning, and in what ways should we structure them to provide education that is vocationally relevant, but also academically rigorous, and socially useful. In this consumer society, where consumption defines who we are, marketing influences what products and services marketers ‘sell’ to us, what advertising messages communicate to us, and how they make us feel. Consumption has a wide range of consequences for consumers as individuals but also for societies and the environment.

Is marketing education (including advertising, consumer behaviour, marketing research)  important ? What social and societal consequences careless marketing education can have? How can we create responsible marketers? Do these ‘micky mouse’ courses matter?

Yes, it is. Marketing activities influence our self-esteem (see paper by Isaksen and Roper, 2012), help to spread new ideas and products (see Diffusion of Innovations theory),  help to persuade people to change their behaviour (for example, marketing communications campaigns to quit smoking), are often responsible for the types of products and services available in the market (although in this case, regulators play even more important role).

Providing academically rigorous marketing-related degrees that make students aware of the possible consequences of marketing (or irresponsible marketing), that are based on rigorous academic standards, and that include modules on ethics, market regulations, economics should be of importance to academics responsible for structuring marketing-related courses.

Photo 1: Street altar in Bangkok, Thailand. Red Fanta used as an offering.

Photo 2: Saigon, Vietnam. Pepsi is the brand of choice for religious offerings in this pagoda.

Fat Thursday in Poland: long queues for Paczki (doughnuts) in Krakow in February 2015.